


The Good Kid

by julad



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: F/M, Imported
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-15
Updated: 2014-06-15
Packaged: 2018-02-04 17:18:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1786954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/julad/pseuds/julad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She was a marine biologist, and as mad about fish as McKay was about physics and Zelenka was about circuits, which was to say, bugfuck crazy.  Ford didn't mind it much.  He knew what to do with scientists-- sit, listen, and try to understand.  Eventually, if you paid enough attention, it started making sense, and once it started making sense, it usually started getting interesting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Good Kid

**Author's Note:**

> Just imported - cleanup and tagging needed.

Challenge: Amnesty (Swimming)  
Title: The Good Kid  
Author: Julad.  
Pairing: Um.... Ford/OFC. _*covers face*_

Yeah, yeah, trust me, I can't believe I'm posting this either. Actually, I dreamed one of the scenes in this, months ago, and I think it was actually while the Swimming challenge was running, but I just didn't have time to turn it into a story. Today I had time, and Siege III made me want to write about Ford. _ETA: oh, yeah, and I tried but failed to write this in 38 minutes. *g*_

* * * * *

Sofia Vasquez was what his Grandma would call a nice young lady. To his grandmother, that was the highest compliment she could pay a girl. Most girls were too modern for Ford's Grandma, but he knew how much she would like Sofia. Sofia was Catholic, admittedly, but his Grandma was open minded enough to accept that. She wanted Ford to find a nice young lady, and Ford wanted it too, because he wanted to be a good kid.

Sofia was also what his high school buddies would have called a four-eyed freak. Ford had been recruited into the Stargate program right out of training, though, so he was pretty used to scientists. He was used to women with thick glasses in white coats, and had long ago forgotten whatever prejudices he might have had against them. Sofia was Venezuelan, with a cute accent and full lips and black hair in a long braid down her back. She wore a gold cross hanging on a chain around her neck. As far as Ford was concerned, the Buddy Holly glasses and lab coat were all part of the package.

She was a marine biologist, and as mad about fish as McKay was about physics and Zelenka was about circuits, which was to say, bugfuck crazy. Ford didn't mind it much. He knew what to do with scientists-- sit, listen, and try to understand. Eventually, if you paid enough attention, it started making sense, and once it started making sense, it usually started getting interesting.

He had lunch with Sofia two or three times a week, and if he could pick up something edible on offworld missions, he invited her to dinner. When somebody was projecting a DVD onto the walls of the mess, they sat together. Ford always walked her to her quarters, and kissed her goodnight.

He didn't try to do more than that. She was a nice young lady, and he was a good kid.

 

* * * * *

One night they had a big party on the mainland. He and Teyla and Sheppard had killed some huge, hairy cow-thing the size of a Humvee, and McKay had started fantasising about barbecued ribs, so they hauled it into the jumper and held their noses all the way home. The medicos carved up the carcass, the geeks brewed the sauce, and the grunts built the bonfire. The Athosians supplied the beer. It was a _great_ party. He and Sofia made out behind a tent until one of the Athosian kids came running around the corner and tripped over them.

"Do you want to see my fish?" she whispered to him, clinging for balance, when they got back to Atlantis. She'd let her hair out of its braid, and it caressed the back of his hand as he supported her.

"You betcha," he said, grinning.

She took his hand and led him inside her quarters. When the lights came on, he realised that she really meant 'see her fish'. Every wall was lined with aquariums, stacked floor to ceiling. "Look!" she said, tugging his arm until he was in front of a tank with a big black fish in it. "This one lives on photosynthesis." She pointed to a plain brown fish. "This one has two hearts, and the gills are quite unusual. And see this one." It was another brown fish. "If we turn out the lights--" she reached over and touched the wall, and the lights dimmed-- "it glows, see?"

It did glow, and _bright_ , like a light bulb. "Whoa," Ford said. "Whoa, that's cool."

"It's _fascinating_ ," she said, swaying on her feet a little. "It's the blood that's luminescent. Look, you can see the veins and arteries."

He could see it, and whoa again. It was like a day-glo diagram, swimming around in a tank.

"I can't work out how it does that," she confessed, and giggled.

Next to the glowy fish was a tank full of shiny blue and green ones, the length of his thumb and as brightly patterned as fishing lures. They looked too bright and sharp to be real. "I like these," he said. "What are they?"

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, they're boring. They don't do anything. I call them _sardinas_ , sardines. There are millions of them below the city."

"I think they're great," Ford said. They darted around madly, scales flashing in the light of the glowy fish. "They look dangerous and cool."

"I'll put some in a tank for you," Sofia promised. "But not tonight, if that's okay?" She wobbled again, and when he looked at her face, it was greyish. "I think maybe I don't feel so good."

Ford was a good kid; he didn't mind holding her hair back while she puked.

 

* * * * *

The next evening, Sofia showed up outside his door, pulling a cart loaded with buckets and cables and tubes and the clear Ancient stuff that wasn't glass. "I want to thank you," she said, hiding behind her glasses. "It was good of you to look after me."

"No problem," Ford said. He peered into the buckets hopefully. "Are those for me?"

"Yes!" She beamed at him. There was nothing scientists appreciated more than somebody who liked whatever they were crazy about. "I have the sardinas, and some corals that are quite nice, and this one--" She reached into a bucket and pulled out what looked like a half-drowned tiger cub. It spluttered and writhed and snapped its teeth. She held it up so Ford could get a closer look; Ford concentrated on not taking a step back. "Fascinating, isn't he? His form is mammalian, and yet his internal physiology resembles the Chondrichthyes more than anything." She looked at Ford. "He's a shark on the inside," she explained, and dropped him back into the bucket of water.

Ford tried to do the gentlemanly thing and help her set it up, but she shooed him out her way so many times, he settled for holding what he was told to hold and passing what he was told to pass. Once she had it up and running, they sat on the bed to admire it. The sardinas darted around in tiny schools, in and out of the coral. The tiger cub prowled around the bottom of the tank, fur rippling in the water currents, poking its nose into rocks and weeds, occasionally leaping up and snatching a sardina.

"This is so _unbelievably_ cool," Ford told Sofia, kissing her cheek. "Thank you!"

She kissed him back, glasses bumping his nose. "You're welcome."

 

* * * * *

For Sofia's birthday, he persuaded the Major to drop them off on an archipelago west of the mainland for a day of snorkelling. She wore a standard issue one-piece, but it showed more of her body than he'd seen in three months, so it was like Ford's birthday too. She caught a dozen different fish, and loaded up another bucket with coral and anenomes. Ford found a big yellow squid-like thing that she dissected with Ford's pocket-knife, kneeling in the sand with her glasses on. Ford stretched out on the dunes and watched her. Scientists were fucking _weird_ , he thought, but this one was probably worth it.

When they got back in the evening, hungry and sunburnt, she hooked his arm through hers and said, "I'll walk you back to your quarters." Inside his quarters, she checked on the sardinas and the tiger cub and then let him lead her to his bed for some serious necking. She was still wearing her swimsuit, and to his amazement, she soon stripped it off.

"Life here is too short," she told him, breathless. "And you are so wonderful, Aiden. My mother loves you, even though she has no idea you exist."

"Cool," he said, reaching for her, very certain that this would be worth the wait.

 

* * * * *

He woke up thirsty as hell, and staggered into the bathroom for water. He stood naked at the window and drank it. Outside, the moon was full, shining over the ocean and into his rooms, and in the silvery light, a dark-haired sprawl was taking up most of his bed. Ford leaned out the window, letting the cool wind tug at his hair, and smiled to himself. He trained hard and worked hard; he risked his life for his planet and his people; he lived impossibly far from the only family he had, but moments like this, he knew it was all worth it.

A splash behind him pulled him back into the present, and he turned to see one of the sardinas swimming up out of the tank to peck curiously at a nearby lamp. Another followed, and then the whole school was in the air, swimming around the room, darting through the doorway into the bathroom, then turning in perfect unison and swooping under his table and up to the ceiling.

Ford tiptoed very slowly and carefully over to the bed. "Sofia!" he hissed. "Wake up!"

Her arm fumbled on the table for her glasses and shoved them onto her face. "Wha--?" she said, sitting up naked, hair everywhere, eyes not really open.

"The sardinas!" he whispered. "Is this normal?"

She looked, and her mouth fell open. "Holy shit," she said, and clutched at his hand. "Aiden, Aiden, oh my God. Do you have a camera?"

Ford carefully retrieved it and crawled back to bed, pulling the sheets up around them while she took photos. The sardinas swam around the room happily, bright sharp flashes of lime green and electric blue. He didn't think they were a threat, but he set his Beretta and a thick book in front of him, in case they needed shooting or swatting.

"It must be the moonlight," Sofia whispered. "In my quarters, the light wouldn't reach them. I had no idea-- Aiden, this is incredible."

"It totally is," he said, staring up.

They sat and watched the sardinas fly until the moon sank behind the horizon. One by one, they sailed out of the window and down towards the water.

"That was amazing!" Sofia told him, and kissed his lips, then screamed in excitement. "My God, I'm so glad I slept with you!"

"Yeah," Ford said. "Me too!" He was grinning so hard, his cheeks ached.

Ford loved being a good kid. Being a good kid had a lot going for it.


End file.
